Sixth Realm

by Michael Chatfield

  Delilah’s voice was slipped and short. “Isn’t it great that we have a number of combat experts ready to assist in training them? I would like to put forward a vote. That every able-bodied person over the age of eighteen will have to finish a mandatory military course for two years. They will come out of it with some money, survival skills, increased levels and a deeper understanding of the military. Those that sign extended contracts with the military can definitely take on further courses such as sharpshooter and so on. People that do not complete the course will not be able to take government jobs. What do you all think?”

  There were noises of agreement and nods.

  “Well, lets put it to a vote.”

  “All those in favor of the military mandatory service?” She raised her hand watching the other hands raise around the table.

  “Very good, then by unanimous decision we’ll look to get that enacted as soon as possible. Glosil we’ll add that to our weekly meeting to review.”.

  “Yes Council leader,” Glosil bowed his head.

  Delilah turned to Egbert.

  “Thanks to the Special Teams roaming across the realms with their trainees, we were able to locate around fifteen dungeon cores and harvest a lot of materials.

  Some of the dungeon cores have been used to create training dungeons for the military and adventurer’s guild, upgrade the main dungeon cores at Vuzgal and here. Also I combined some of them and used them as secondary cores on the different floors of Alva Dungeon. I was using our main dungeon core to go floor-by-floor to take control over the floor and repair it with coordination of the construction and formation department.

  The dungeon cores on each floor will regulate them, refining out the different affinities to make them pure, so Fire and Earth aren’t mixed together it is just Fire or just Earth. This will allow for greater concentrations. I have added mana-storing formations to each of the floors, that way if they are cut off again for some reason they can regulate themselves and store power to sustain themselves over an extended period of time. We can also increase the mana density of the living floor to assist our people.

  “Seems you Alvans and the Army loves to live in all kinds of strange places! I found someone taking a nap in the lava pools and was pulled out into the lava lake by the undercurrents the other day!” Egbert looked over to Glosil who coughed and rubbed his neck awkwardly. “I think that it was co-”

  “”I’ll make sure that it doesn’t happen again!” Glosil quickly interrupted.

  “Going to need to start putting up signs about there not being a lifeguard on duty!” Egbert shook his skeletal head.

  “Alright what was I saying, floors repaired, dungeon core is operational, dungeon core back where it should be, people living on other floors. Mana density!” Egbert tapped his bony finger with realization.

  “The mana density would be the same as it is in the Sky realms if we focused on the living floor, if we were to direct the pure mana back down to the other floors, it would increase the strength of the floors faster but the mana density would reach the upper standard of the Earth Realms across all floors. With mana-gathering formations and enough mana stones people would reach the standard of the Sky Realm.”

  There was a general intake of air.

  “I thought we only reached the basic Earth realm density of mana?”

  “Yes, but there are varying densities in the Earth realms, the fourth, fifth and sixth floor make up the Earth realm. The Fourth Realm is almost twenty times denser than the First Realm. The Sixth Realm is eighty times denser than the First Realm.”

  “Raise all floors to the standard of the Earth Realm,” Delilah said.

  “Understood.” Egbert closed his eyes and the beam of power that was surging up into the mana storing formation became thinner and more of the mana entered the formations around the dungeon core.

  Mana, in a wave spread out from the dungeon core.

  Delilah felt it relaxing her mind and unconsciously her mana-gathering cultivation started to draw in more mana with greater ease. It was as if she had been drinking the last bit of water with a straw, but now she only needed to open her mouth and she could take big gulps.

  Her mind cleared and she closed her eyes before she focused once again.

  “Library?”

  “The Libraries have increased in size again. We have developed the auxiliary and mainly theoretical magic department under Tanya Kvist,” Egbert replied.

  “How is our population looking?”

  “Currently there are sixty thousand Alvans living in the Dungeon across a number of the floors. There are a total of thirty-seven thousand Alvans that are out roaming or are not in Alva or Vuzgal. Some are working in the Third Realm outpost, others in Wandering Inns and Sky Reaching Restaurants or are trading or outside wandering the realms. The population of Vuzgal has reached Four hundred thousand permanent residents, ninety-four thousand of which are Alvans. There is a transient population of forty to sixty thousand people from week to week and day to day.”

  He waited to see if she had any more questions.

  “Thank you, Egbert, you can go back to reading your book.”

  “Phew! Meetings, boring to the extreme!” Egbert whipped out a beach chair from somewhere and pulled off his robe revealing a flowery shirt and shorts as he put on a straw hat with one hand, falling back into his chair as his other hand held a book.

  By the time his bony ass hit fabric, he was in the book’s world, his finger holding the next page, ready to flip over as soon as he was done with his current page.

  Delilah had an amused look on her face.

  Some things don’t change. Her smile stilled as her eyes landed on Glosil, Elan, Arenson and Blaze.

  “I’ll go first, mine is easier,” Arenson said. Delilah waved for him to continue.

  “No major issues, training more people.”

  Delilah nodded and Arenson sat back.

  “Captain Yui believes that his Company will be able to lead the assault on the Water Floor in a week. I believe him. Training and testing took longer than we anticipated. Major Domonos has remained in Vuzgal to train more recruits. His command has swelled as he is integrating people into his command. If they were to join Yui’s Tiger Company then it would only lead to greater training times for working with the new warships. The military has reached nearly four thousand strong, every three months it is the plan to train nearly Two thousand troops. We will reach regiment strength in two more months. Stepping up a second regiment nine months later, in time for the second Battle Arena competition,” Glosil looked around to see if there were questions.

  “What about gear?” Delilah asked.

  “That is coming from the military budget. We have the quartermaster department constantly looking at what people are able to create and modifying it for use on the battlefield. Based upon information supplied by Erik and Rugrat, our own knowledge, and the ability of our crafters, we are starting testing on our first true machine gun. Not to be confused with our modified automatic rifles. New ammunition testing is being carried out to increase our lethality dealing with higher leveled opponents.”

  Delilah was impressed. Erik and Rugrat had started all of this, but they couldn’t place everything on their shoulders. Alva was now expanding and growing according to its own abilities.

  The military was an organic thing, as they advanced through the realms they were constantly evolving, updating and upgrading their equipment to deal with the new threats.

  “Well done commander Glosil! Under your command, the military has expanded and adapted rapidly.”

  “Thank you Council Leader,” Glosil bowed his head, the corners of his mouth twitched only slightly.

  Her eyes moved to Blaze.

  He looked haggard and tired, but his eyes shone with purpose.

  The room seemed to quiet and even Egbert looked up from his book.

  Blaze looked to Elan and then back to Delilah.

  “We have been carrying out a three-pronged a
ttack on the Willful Institute. Through Elan’s information, we have used our traders as leverage against the Institute, slowing down and cutting off different sources of funds and resources. These are not major losses but together they add up.

  “The Adventurer’s Guild has been training, expanding and using our own abilities to contest against the Institute in the dark and take business away from them, waging a silent economic war. The Institute is filled with factions so what happens in one city or to one branch is rarely reported upwardunless it is good news. Any bad news is seen as a weakness. With time it is thwearingem down. Our main target has been the Willful Institute city that the murderers came from. I can talk about the actions but Elan has a clearer understanding of the effects,” Blaze looked to Elan.

  “The Willful Institute has been hamstrung in several ways. Their rate of recruitment is down and they are able to raise less expert crafters and elite fighters as they do not have the resources. With the lack of resources, the internal fights have only escalated, students and teachers fighting one another. On the outside they are harmonious, internally they are a group of wolves that are trying to eat from the other’s food. Their factions and divisions are becoming clearer. As they have greater internal issues they are not focusing on external problems, allowing us to chip away at their power base,” Elan said.

  “Further actions?” Delilah asked, calm on the outside while inside she was scared. This was a fight with a powerful sect across several realms. A slumbering beast that could rear its head at any second.

  “There are several groups and sects that have blood feuds and grudges with the Willful Institute. I have made contact with them. I have not even hinted at the plan developing, but at the right time, we might be able to use their help to attack the Institute. The Military is on standby, if this blows up then the Army will add their support; secretly if we can, or out in the open if absolutely necessary. We will know what the Institute will do before they do. It is my hope to get them tripping over one another and uncoordinated when we have to engage them face-to-face.”

  “Keep me in the loop for everything,” Delilah said.

  “We will not move without your agreement,” Commander Glosil said, Elan and Blaze nodded firmly. Complete control had been given over to her, her word was law when coming to military matters.

  “I am confident in our strength and your plan gentlemen,” Delilah said, rewarding them with a confident look, her complete trust in their abilities.

  The three men were deeply moved by her words as Delilah raised her head.

  “Anything else?”

  “King’s Hill,” Elan said.

  Delilah was caught up with the situation but others weren’t she indicated for him to continue as she wrote down notes.

  The flourishing city had grown rapidly under Alva’s backing and Aditya’s leadership. The roads were all well-established and traders were coming from all over to trade.

  With some careful negotiation and the right items or gifts to the right people, King’s Hill was gaining support and stability.

  The powers that be did not like the fact that a new nation had been created, one that had a heavy military might through the mercenaries that hunted powerful beasts and resources in the Beast Mountain Range. If they played nice and traded then they could earn some gains, but if they were to attack then this small but powerful force with their own trained military baptized in the Beast Mountain Range could turn into an unknown and powerful thorn. They weren’t threatened by them, but if they did enough damage, who knew if their neighbors would allow them to recover or launch an attack to take their lands.

  So it remained a stalemate and the neutral King’s Hill and surrounding outposts huddled together, becoming more interlinked every day. Some outpost leaders took on different roles better suited to managing traders than dealing with their outposts. With exterior pressures, Aditya was able to band the outpost leaders together.

  All the while they added more crafters to their ranks, traders came and went, while their military members that had been scouted by the Alva Army were trained into true soldiers and brought into the secrets of Alva, before being returned to the army. Slowly they were transforming the Beast Mountain Range Military. They didn’t have the weapons or the armor of the Alva Army but their training focused on combining the strengths of many together. Adding in mana and body cultivation techniques and aids they walked along the path of elite.

  Elan finished his report and Delilah looked up from her notes.

  “Two more points. We will be collecting more dungeon cores in the future to create combat dungeons. We have a number of people with Dungeon points unable to use them. The dungeons at Vuzgal are fought over eagerly by fighters and crafters, limiting the number of people we can send in. Egbert will make several new dungeons for our people to fight through, aimed to train people from the First Realm to the Seventh Realm. Tempering facilities will be created on each floor, these will contain concentrated affinity mana for people to temper their bodies with. They will be restricted so only people that have passed the previous tempering can advance, there will also be an associated cost to using these facilities. A large monster breeding project is underway across all floors to raise powerful beasts. Beasts will be made available for adoption to the general population. Alva is stronger than ever, with your help we will only become stronger.”

  Delilah looked at her fellow council members.

  “Glad that’s over with!” Egbert complained jumping up, his book and chair disappearing into his storage ring.

  “Alva is becoming more complex, there is always something happening,” Delilah sighed.

  “Enough to make your head spin!” Egbert smacked his head, it twisted around as he tried to walk and instead started stagger.

  “Urgh, no nope! Stahp!” He grabbed his head and put it facing the right way. “That was a terrible idea.”

  “Guess that’s an after effect of being undead, less brains,” Blaze said, tapping his skull.

  “That is Undeadist! You take that back!”

  Even with all the new roles and changes they had been through, thankfully the core people hadn’t been changed.

  Delilah smiled as she stood, the meeting coming to an end, people broke off into groups, chatting to one another, making plans to meet up, or talking about different projects and trying to get the other’s help.

  It was a madhouse, but somehow Alva had prevailed and pushed forward.

  Delilah left the meeting and returned to her office. She toured the room, running her hand over her desk, she organized the papers on her desk and she fell back into her chair.

  She looked at it all, her hands stilled as she was looking over the papers. She turned and looked out of the office, looking at Alva, the simple square homes had been altered, they had grown like runner beans. Now there were multiple large buildings around the Dungeon Core. The Market was as busy as ever, the general products had moved to the second trading district and a third trader district was the place where the traveling Alvan traders met.

  There were chairs and tables across the first marketplace, restaurants were doing a quick business, chefs and cooks from the Academy turned it into their battlefield of flavors and food. To the joy of their fellow Alvans.

  Delilah saw a group of people, they must’ve been new Alvans as they looked around the city with wide eyes. A police officer and recruiting officer were with them, talking about the city, they were guided to the intake building where they would be able to stay for two weeks to get themselves settled, learn about Alva and start on their journey to become a supporting Alvan citizen.

  Delilah’s eyes moved to the Academy. It had grown, sprawling across the floor. The library had grown outwards, becoming thicker and larger, but it had remained in the same style it had been originally built.

  The Barracks which had been barely manned in the past was now filled to bursting and Glosil had put forward a request to create secondary barracks on the other floors and a second ba
rracks on Alva’s main floor.

  Her eyes drifted to the Alchemy gardens, the parks, and the people. Alva had flourished and thrived here away from everything else.

  There was a knock at the door interrupting her daydreams.

  She turned to the door, clearing her head.

  “Come in!” She said.

  The door opened and Egbert walked in, he closed the door behind him.

  “Is there something I can help you with Egbert?” Delilah asked.

  “I just wanted to bring you a few reading materials,” Egbert said, even without lips she could tell he was grinning as he snuck to her desk and pulled out a stack of romance novels.

  Delilah burst into a smile and bit her lip.

  “These are the best ones I picked out for you. We’ve got summer romance, a King who falls in love with a female warrior. A male warrior that is sent to kill a female shapeshifter, but he is wounded on the journey and she tends to him, then he has to either defend her against more hunters or stand with them against her. This is about a woman cook, she is put down all the time, then she has a fortuitous encounter and surges forward, the powerful men in her class are all attracted to her and they must all compete for her affections,” Egbert said excitedly.

  Delilah couldn’t wait to dive into the books.

  “I should’ve never read that first book,” Delilah said. “My mother found it and started reading it, now she’s begging me to share the ones you pass to me!”

  Egbert laughed.

  “Well, when one finds a good read they must share!”

  “Little Romance book trickster, you just want more people to talk to about your books! I think you want to create a book club just to talk about them....hahahaha”

  “Well, what did you think of the Merchant Warrior book?”

  “Oh, come on,” Delilah circled in her chair. “You can’t use books against me! But it was pretty good.” Delilah fanned herself with a faint blush.

  “Right?” Egbert agreed as he dropped into a seat opposite.

  “Though, the Loyal judicator, that, damn, Terrance and Victoria, red hot,” Delilah said.